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CUC gets new $500K subsidy but needs more help
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Posted on Jan 01 2006
The Commonwealth Utilities Corp. said it received another $500,000 in fuel cost subsidy from the CNMI government last Friday, but added that fuel that the money could purchase could only sustain power generation services until Tuesday.
Tomorrow, CUC needs another batch of subsidy from the government, or power generation may again be hampered.
Acting CUC executive director Tony Guerrero said CUC needs to buy additional fuel as Mobil’s fuel tanker is set to arrive Saipan from Singapore on Wednesday.
Last Friday’s subsidy prolonged CUC’s fuel stock for its power plants and assured uninterrupted power generation on the islands during the New Year celebrations.
That assistance brings the total subsidy provided by the government to the beleaguered utility firm to $1.5 million in the past two weeks. Before the government released the initial $500,000-subsidy, CUC resorted to power load shedding on Saipan to conserve fuel and make it last until the Christmas weekend.
The Babauta administration had promised to provide CUC an additional $1 million subsidy this week, but then acting CUC executive director Sohale Samari disclosed that the government had yet to provide a clear-cut guarantee that the money would be given to the utility firm.
Samari had also said, though, that the government gave its assurance that it would deal with the problem when the fuel tanker comes in.
CUC’s power generation for Saipan, Tinian and Rota costs approximately $179,000 daily, according to Samari. On Saipan, Samari said the two operational power plants consume an average of 84,000 gallons at a cost of $1.75 per gallon, resulting in a daily consumption of $147,000.
According to Samari, Tinian’s daily fuel consumption averages 12,000 gallons, while that on Rota reaches 4,000 gallons. At the rate of $2 per gallon, CUC’s daily fuel consumption for the two islands’ power plants costs $32,000.
The CUC has begun shutting down streetlights on many parts of Saipan due to financial woes. The CUC said streetlights that are not on primary roads such as Beach Road and Middle Road are being shut down to conserve fuel.
